On Water, Flow and Warped Time is a group exhibition that features work by Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Ewa Ciepielewska, and HUNITI GOLDOX.

In our western society, time is seen as a linear process revolving around growth and progress. More than ever, humanity is focused on productivity and time management. But are there other ways to experience time? Can we move through the world differently? The artists in the exhibition On Water, Flow and Warped Time explore the phenomenon of ‘time’ from various contexts and perspectives, focusing on water(ways) as entities from which we can learn to collectively live together; a counter-narrative to capitalist notions, contemporary productivity, and colonial structures.

In July 2022, Nomaduma Rosa Masilela and Thiago de Paula Souza invited artist collective HUNITI GOLDOX, consisting of artists Areej Huniti and Eliza Goldox, to participate in the residency project FLOW / PRZEPŁYW as part of Vleeshal’s International Nomadic Program 2022-2023. Artists Agnieszka Brzeżańska and Ewa Ciepielewska have sailed over the Polish river Wisła for the last 10 years with FLOW / PRZEPŁYW, during which they crossed the whole country while living along the side of the river. For the residency, Brzeżańska and Ciepielewska invite other artists to join them on rivers in Poland or Germany. HUNITI GOLDOX was asked to float with them down the stream of the Wisła. During the residency, the four artists lived together on the boat while they explored what it means to be at the mercy of the flow of a river as an artist and as a human being.

The entrance of On Water, Flow and Warped Time is moved to the back of the former city hall of Middelburg. This means that you walk around Vleeshal and underneath a facade stone of a V.O.C. ship. This walk enhances the experience of time. Outside, at the courtyard of Vleeshal you encounter a work by Ciepielewska: a boat with a sail that is specially made for FLOW / PRZEPŁYW and resembles the one they use for the residency.

HUNITI GOLDOX is presenting the installation Measuring Time Through the Fall of Water. The sound you hear resonating through the exhibition space is that of a water clock. A water clock is an ancient system in which time is measured by the dripping of water. This way, the artist duo critically reflects on how humans sustain territorial demarcations, such as time zones, dams, or borders. HUNITI GOLDOX is searching for speculative and indigenous forms of knowledge production in their collaborative practice, to which refer in the aluminum reliefs. These reliefs are fossil imprints of the bottoms of various rivers that show the scars of the earth and will serve as witnesses of human intervention in the future.

The work of Ewa Ciepielewska consists of stories that are written during her journeys on the rivers and sounds that are recorded along riverbeds. In the ‘sweatlodge’ that is constructed of willows from Zeeland, you can listen to meditative sounds. In the large hammock – a fisher’s net that hangs from one side of the exhibition space to the other – you can read a log book with text and drawings of a boat trip from Krakow in Poland to Orléans in France. These works reflect how we could potentially slow down in a fast-paced society by creating space for storytelling and introspection.

The ceramics of Agnieszka Brzeżańska might remind you of mystical, godlike creatures that carry ancestral knowledge. These ‘ancestors’ represent how our contemporary bodies respond to cultural perspectives and question what is nature and what is culture. Placed in the alcoves and in a fountain, the ancestors will be scattered around the space and serve as a guide throughout the exhibition.

We invite visitors to wander through the space, to isolate themselves or meet others, to listen to stories, or lose themselves in the slow, meditative movements of a water clock.

The exhibition concept was developed by Nomaduma Rosa Masilela and Thiago de Paula Souza, curators of Vleeshal's International Nomadic Program 2022-2023 and handed over to Vleeshal’s team members Roeliena Aukema and Adriënne van der Werf, who took on the role of curators for this exhibition.

Events

4 August

Free entrance

9 am – 3 pm 

4 August

Guided tour

10 am – 2 pm 

29 August

Walk-in

12 – 1 pm 

1 September

Free entrance

9 am – 3 pm 

1 September

Guided tour

10 am – 2 pm 

4 September

Sensory-friendly hour

7 – 9 am